Rhineland-Palatinate: Five dead in the fire in the attic

As many deaths as in the small town Lambrecht are rare in a residential fire. A police spokesman says, "Not all are identified yet."

House fires with such devastating consequences are rare in Germany. Five people lost their lives during a fire in an attic of an apartment building in Lambrecht in Rhineland-Palatinate. "Not all are identified yet," said a police spokesman for the German Press Agency. He could not yet give more information about the dead. There are no children.

The fire broke out on Thursday at about 11.30 pm, according to the public prosecutor Frankenthal and the police headquarters in Rheinpfalz. The cause of the fire is still unclear. The criminal investigation is still ongoing. Lambrecht is located in the Palatinate Forest between Kaiserslautern and Speyer.

The fire had been reported by residents from the house, said the police spokesman. The other apartments had been cleared. Injuries would not have suffered the other residents. "Currently running still fire work," the spokesman said early Friday morning. The amount of property damage is reported to be several hundred thousand euros. Further information the police wants to give at a press conference at 10 o'clock.

In recent years, there have been several cases that caused a stir nationwide: In October 2015, four residents were killed in a fire in an attic apartment in Pforzheim in Baden-Württemberg – presumably by the wrong use of a radiant heater. In March 2013, one woman and seven of her children between the ages of 6 months and 17 years died in a home fire in Backnang, Baden-Württemberg. In this case too, the householders accidentally caused the fire themselves, according to investigators.